Friday, December 13, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
monstrous moonshine
tonight i left the house. it took me a day and a half to work up to leaving, but whining cats who were sick to death of scrambled eggs finally forced me to find my car keys. and boy howdy, i am glad for that tricky car ride. after mad cat and trader joe's (lots of pre-prepared microwavable meals--don't judge), i headed home. the npr show was about neighbors, and the first segment was about jeffrey dahmer's childhood neighbor. the guy was kind of an asshole. so i was only half way listening. thennnn....
first off, the noises: shhhhwish, dumm, dumm, dop...shhhwish, dumm, dumm, dop. shhhwish, shhhwish, hissssss. i make noises. when i am doing something rhythmic, i like to accompany the movements with appropriate sounds. (you probably do this too, but you are just too embarrassed to admit it.) the sounds drew me in.
the book is about the washed-up mathematical genius living on tinned mackerel and ramen in the basement of his own home. (he rents out the upper house part of the house.) the author just happened to move into the house. later he found out that his landlord was the brilliant math guy, simon p. norton. who? right?
here's what matters: the guy wrote about MONSTROUS MOONSHINE! how's that for some math genius?
according to wikipedia:
(feel free to skip this explanation unless you want a headache.)
In mathematics, monstrous moonshine, or moonshine theory, is a term devised by John Conway and Simon P. Norton in 1979, used to describe the unexpected connection between the monster group M and modular functions, in particular, the j function. It is now known that lying behind monstrous moonshine is a certain conformal field theory having the Monster group as symmetries. The conjectures made by Conway and Norton were proved by Richard Borcherds in 1992 using the no-ghost theorem from string theory and the theory of vertex operator algebras and generalized Kac–Moody algebras.
huh? well anyway, i did find out that it is called monstrous moonshine because " blah blah blah, that's moonshine" and if you can figure out "blah, blah, blah, i'll give you a bottle of jack daniels". read more about it on wikipedia--and donate while you are there.
and read the book by alexander masters called simon--the genius in my basement. when you are finished, give me a call and we can chat over whisky and discuss string theory and knitting and such.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Arkansas, a snow storm, and home again
back at the end of october, we did a show in ann arbor--the anniversary of my first show, as a matter a fact. i was ill-prepared. it came in the middle of a roller coaster loop-de-loop, and yarn dyeing just kept getting pushed to the back burner. the next show on our line up was the arkansas fiber extravaganza in hot springs. hot springs is a long long way from home. i was ridiculously prepared and excited about this show. sally melville was the headliner! my mom and dad were going to meet us there with no-no and jc! it was going to be warmer than wisconsin! last year this show was so much fun! okay, enough with the exclamation points.
anyway...i was prepared--even called in the troop--ravven. i had a ton of yarn, and 90% of it was already labeled. (one of my biggest issues is getting the labeling done.) all the yarn was reskeined. i didn't eat a pint of ice cream every day the week before we left, so i could button my pants. of course, we were late leaving, but that's par for the course.
after driving all night--literally--we got to arkansas only to find out that a ice storm was moving in. it had been raining most of the day, and the temperature was going to drop. well, great news, huh? that meant that my mom and dad didn't come. who in their right mind would risk it? it also meant that it was not warmer in arkansas. it also meant attendance was down. and did i mention that it was cold?
and the kicker--we left the odds and ends box at home. this is my favorite box. it holds business cards, the camera charger, scissors, band aides, gum, tape, glue, extra labels, stress balls...all the things that you need to make shows go more easily. so no business cards and no labels and poor attendance and tow headed kiddos and nothing open in hot springs. blah. not a great weekend.
luckily, it only took us 19 hours to get home.
anyway...i was prepared--even called in the troop--ravven. i had a ton of yarn, and 90% of it was already labeled. (one of my biggest issues is getting the labeling done.) all the yarn was reskeined. i didn't eat a pint of ice cream every day the week before we left, so i could button my pants. of course, we were late leaving, but that's par for the course.
after driving all night--literally--we got to arkansas only to find out that a ice storm was moving in. it had been raining most of the day, and the temperature was going to drop. well, great news, huh? that meant that my mom and dad didn't come. who in their right mind would risk it? it also meant that it was not warmer in arkansas. it also meant attendance was down. and did i mention that it was cold?
and the kicker--we left the odds and ends box at home. this is my favorite box. it holds business cards, the camera charger, scissors, band aides, gum, tape, glue, extra labels, stress balls...all the things that you need to make shows go more easily. so no business cards and no labels and poor attendance and tow headed kiddos and nothing open in hot springs. blah. not a great weekend.
luckily, it only took us 19 hours to get home.
Friday, November 8, 2013
biscotti-ba-boom
if any of y'all are yarnies, you may know that magic and moonshine (me mainly with a bit of lee and deon thrown in) does a cookies and cake club every year. this year it's inspired by jitterbug perfume by tom robbins. (shout out to cathy ellsworth, senior humanities teacher who gave me the book and incited by lifelong love for tom robbins.) the club is called sexy yarns and sinful treats this go-round.
so, the first month--october--was seattle and the beet. (read the book if you don't get it. it's totally worth it.) so, of course, seattle called for chocolate cherry biscotti. or actually because i go for overkill: triple chocolate cherry biscotti. so i know how to make biscotti--probably made several dozen batches of biscotti a week for a couple of years. it's super easy. and it's not supposed to look pretty, so it's even easier. right?
well, sort of. it would be easy if i wasn't the me who wants to fancy everything up a little bit AND who is a procrastinating perfectionist. i had to get this biscotti made on saturday so that i could get the already late club orders out that afternoon. i made lee run to the grocery store as soon as he woke up so that the eggs would be room temp by the time i stumbled out of bed. yay, lee!
then i realized that i should wait to mail until monday--damn the lateness, fresher biscotti. i mean who wants their biscotti to sit in the p.o. all weekend. so, i put off biscotti til sunday. no problem. biscotti is easy. but...the first batch. i didn't chop up my chocolate well nor did i add enough liquid and i added extra cherries. so baking the requisite amount of time left me with burnt biscotti. problem is that with dark chocolate and dutch processed cocoa, it's hard to tell that they are burnt. but much later, i decided they were--chocolate is weird about burnt--it can almost mask it, especially if it's extra dark chocolate. but i know that burnt was there.
so, batch number too. still made the same recipe mistakes. confession: i was using ghiradelli bittersweet chips so i didn't bother to chop--even though the chips were big enough to be elf hats. i was also using rum to soak the cherries, and i didn't want to use rum, so i didn't add that liquid. also, i was low on vanilla--and that makes me very very sad. but, in spite of my shortcomings, batch number two was alright. so, i wanted to make it better. DIP IT IN CHOCOLATE!!! well, i had my chocolate warmed and ready to drizzle. then i thought it would be a great idea to add cold milk--skim. where was my brain? guess what. chocolate seized. now here is where backing away, admitting defeat, would have been the logical option. but that isn't what i did. logic is not the only option. i added an insane amount of butter to the chocolate and dipped those 'scotti in it. yep. i did. guess what? it was a ridiculous mess. kinda like frosting the biscotti with canned chocolate frosting. crap. 2 a.m.
new plan. run to the store as soon as i get up monday morning for a stick of butter, a container of milk, and a loaf of bread. or at least, eggs, vanilla, chocolate, cherries. and some toilet paper.
well, sort of. it would be easy if i wasn't the me who wants to fancy everything up a little bit AND who is a procrastinating perfectionist. i had to get this biscotti made on saturday so that i could get the already late club orders out that afternoon. i made lee run to the grocery store as soon as he woke up so that the eggs would be room temp by the time i stumbled out of bed. yay, lee!
then i realized that i should wait to mail until monday--damn the lateness, fresher biscotti. i mean who wants their biscotti to sit in the p.o. all weekend. so, i put off biscotti til sunday. no problem. biscotti is easy. but...the first batch. i didn't chop up my chocolate well nor did i add enough liquid and i added extra cherries. so baking the requisite amount of time left me with burnt biscotti. problem is that with dark chocolate and dutch processed cocoa, it's hard to tell that they are burnt. but much later, i decided they were--chocolate is weird about burnt--it can almost mask it, especially if it's extra dark chocolate. but i know that burnt was there.
so, batch number too. still made the same recipe mistakes. confession: i was using ghiradelli bittersweet chips so i didn't bother to chop--even though the chips were big enough to be elf hats. i was also using rum to soak the cherries, and i didn't want to use rum, so i didn't add that liquid. also, i was low on vanilla--and that makes me very very sad. but, in spite of my shortcomings, batch number two was alright. so, i wanted to make it better. DIP IT IN CHOCOLATE!!! well, i had my chocolate warmed and ready to drizzle. then i thought it would be a great idea to add cold milk--skim. where was my brain? guess what. chocolate seized. now here is where backing away, admitting defeat, would have been the logical option. but that isn't what i did. logic is not the only option. i added an insane amount of butter to the chocolate and dipped those 'scotti in it. yep. i did. guess what? it was a ridiculous mess. kinda like frosting the biscotti with canned chocolate frosting. crap. 2 a.m.
new plan. run to the store as soon as i get up monday morning for a stick of butter, a container of milk, and a loaf of bread. or at least, eggs, vanilla, chocolate, cherries. and some toilet paper.
i did that. i used port to soak my cherries, and chopped my chocolate. i made the best damn triple chocolate cherry biscotti. and then i ate 6 pieces, mailed the rest off, and went back to sleep.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
a droopy post
so i wrote a post earlier today, and i just wandered back around to it. it was the droopiest thing i have written on the blog--and on top of that, it wasn't funny or interesting. it was just sad trombone boring. it was a poor little me post. so i deleted it. or something.
since writing on this blog (in this blog?) was on my to do list today, i am trying to redo it so i won't feel guilty tomorrow and have to add it to tomorrow's already mile long to do. mile long to do lists are my thing. maybe that's my problem. I LOVE MAKING LISTS!!! i keep random lists of everything. e.g. what my 5 female cats' names would be if they were male. ftr, lulii would be frank; kk would be roy; rose would be bob; pi would be sam; and chica would be chico. also lists of colors i would like to use on my walls should i ever repaint, and these lists are accompanied by paint chips (which i collect because in addition to my lists, i like to collect weird things). lists of things i want to write about or read about or research or watch--normal lists, right? except i rarely actually write about or read about or research or watch or listen to anything on my lists. apparently, it is enough to have the lists. i have notebooks full of lists. i love a bullet point.
for my daily lists, i subdivide into what i call a "higgdy". this stands for "how it's gonna go down, yo." following the guidance of whoever wrote getting things done, i break things down into lists of 5. so like 7 groups of 5 mini to do lists. each sub-list starts with "read", so i really only have 4 action items on the list. items are crossed off when they are done, and if i drank a full glass of water while i was working my way down the list, i get to put a check mark across the list.
i am super awesome in the early day (for me the day starts around 11 am, so i don't have a lot of early day to work with). i plow through the first mini lists full of energy. (each one takes about an hour.) the problem is that when i hit that third mini, i have had to add things to the list that must get done, but that i really don't want to do. the first couple will mainly be the basics--clean the kitchen, take a shower, go get diet cokes, write, sweep the bedroom, hang the laundry, etc...then i have to get to the nitty gritty. so at this point, i slow down. way down. and i waste more time sitting outside staring at the tree or counting the number of zinnias i still have left.
so now, each list starts taking an extra half hour. so i manage to get through 5 mini lists, and then it's six o'clock, and the final bell rings in my head. the rest of the world quits work around 5 or 6, so i do too. except that the rest of the world starts before 11...
crud monkeys. i wonder if i can sell lists instead of yarn.
since writing on this blog (in this blog?) was on my to do list today, i am trying to redo it so i won't feel guilty tomorrow and have to add it to tomorrow's already mile long to do. mile long to do lists are my thing. maybe that's my problem. I LOVE MAKING LISTS!!! i keep random lists of everything. e.g. what my 5 female cats' names would be if they were male. ftr, lulii would be frank; kk would be roy; rose would be bob; pi would be sam; and chica would be chico. also lists of colors i would like to use on my walls should i ever repaint, and these lists are accompanied by paint chips (which i collect because in addition to my lists, i like to collect weird things). lists of things i want to write about or read about or research or watch--normal lists, right? except i rarely actually write about or read about or research or watch or listen to anything on my lists. apparently, it is enough to have the lists. i have notebooks full of lists. i love a bullet point.
for my daily lists, i subdivide into what i call a "higgdy". this stands for "how it's gonna go down, yo." following the guidance of whoever wrote getting things done, i break things down into lists of 5. so like 7 groups of 5 mini to do lists. each sub-list starts with "read", so i really only have 4 action items on the list. items are crossed off when they are done, and if i drank a full glass of water while i was working my way down the list, i get to put a check mark across the list.
i am super awesome in the early day (for me the day starts around 11 am, so i don't have a lot of early day to work with). i plow through the first mini lists full of energy. (each one takes about an hour.) the problem is that when i hit that third mini, i have had to add things to the list that must get done, but that i really don't want to do. the first couple will mainly be the basics--clean the kitchen, take a shower, go get diet cokes, write, sweep the bedroom, hang the laundry, etc...then i have to get to the nitty gritty. so at this point, i slow down. way down. and i waste more time sitting outside staring at the tree or counting the number of zinnias i still have left.
so now, each list starts taking an extra half hour. so i manage to get through 5 mini lists, and then it's six o'clock, and the final bell rings in my head. the rest of the world quits work around 5 or 6, so i do too. except that the rest of the world starts before 11...
crud monkeys. i wonder if i can sell lists instead of yarn.
Monday, September 9, 2013
time to make the do-nuts
dude! we finished the space minus three things: the drawers under the tv console, the major lights lee wants to put in, and something else that i can't remember right now. some pics:
a general overview complete with a couple of cats. this is my pretty pink basement where i am going to dye my yarn and order my supplies and knit and snuggle kitties. and where i am going to do the insanity workout--for serious, i'm gonna do it.
here is my dye table (really a door on saw horses, but whatever). see my dyes and my jars and my dye solutions. underneath is a little whackety shelf that deon and i built holding various and sundry tools of the trade. i also have a lazy susan. don't know exactly the point yet, but it spins! i hope my pretty new room encourages me to be less messy and careless in my dyeing process. also, see the fish on the wall made out of mississippi license plates? paul made it for julie who gave it to me.
this is a shelf of yarn with a little bit of fabric thrown in. also, in the corner you can see an old poster from the hoka. it's from oj ekemode and the nigerian all stars--a great band. and p.s. if anyone has any info on them i would love to hear it. they have vanished off the face of the earth. the poster says "if you can walk, you can dance; if you can talk, you can sing." tru dat. also on the wall? a welcome, y'all sign. and the best part? "y'all" is spelled right! amazing how many people misspell it. it's a contraction for "you all", yo. get it right. (and while we are talking grammar and stuff, "i" is not in the objective case." just because newspapers and editors and authors seem to have forgotten grammar, doesn't mean you have to forget to. were you raised by wolves?
a chair to sit in when i want to sit in a chair on that side of the room.
also my tool chest and a bunch of craft books. and you probably can't see this, but there are a few of my myriad collections in the shelves--a bowl of rocks and sticks, a bunch of pretty beads, a few bones, some binder clips, and hidden behind it all are a ton of little notebooks. i can't seem to get enough little notebooks! i'm obsessed.
down below--the tv play space. room to play wi, to do yoga, and to do the aforementioned insanity workout. and also to watch a gazillion episodes of that 70s show! (for those of you who have been living in a cave, here's a link.
a general overview complete with a couple of cats. this is my pretty pink basement where i am going to dye my yarn and order my supplies and knit and snuggle kitties. and where i am going to do the insanity workout--for serious, i'm gonna do it.
here is my dye table (really a door on saw horses, but whatever). see my dyes and my jars and my dye solutions. underneath is a little whackety shelf that deon and i built holding various and sundry tools of the trade. i also have a lazy susan. don't know exactly the point yet, but it spins! i hope my pretty new room encourages me to be less messy and careless in my dyeing process. also, see the fish on the wall made out of mississippi license plates? paul made it for julie who gave it to me.
this is a shelf of yarn with a little bit of fabric thrown in. also, in the corner you can see an old poster from the hoka. it's from oj ekemode and the nigerian all stars--a great band. and p.s. if anyone has any info on them i would love to hear it. they have vanished off the face of the earth. the poster says "if you can walk, you can dance; if you can talk, you can sing." tru dat. also on the wall? a welcome, y'all sign. and the best part? "y'all" is spelled right! amazing how many people misspell it. it's a contraction for "you all", yo. get it right. (and while we are talking grammar and stuff, "i" is not in the objective case." just because newspapers and editors and authors seem to have forgotten grammar, doesn't mean you have to forget to. were you raised by wolves?
 |
| my inspiration wall--me and my bro, my family, me and a couple of cousins, all sorts of quotes and pretty stuff! |
a chair to sit in when i want to sit in a chair on that side of the room.
also my tool chest and a bunch of craft books. and you probably can't see this, but there are a few of my myriad collections in the shelves--a bowl of rocks and sticks, a bunch of pretty beads, a few bones, some binder clips, and hidden behind it all are a ton of little notebooks. i can't seem to get enough little notebooks! i'm obsessed.
down below--the tv play space. room to play wi, to do yoga, and to do the aforementioned insanity workout. and also to watch a gazillion episodes of that 70s show! (for those of you who have been living in a cave, here's a link.
and now it's time to get to work!!!! festivals and yarn club and shop updates, oh my!
Saturday, August 24, 2013
MY STUDIO!!!
while i was taking a bath this morning, i was thinking of blogginess. thinking of all the things that i should tell--famous avion, missing michael stype but burning the chicken, my mom putting me in the shopping cart when i was 39, the many things i collect, my love/hate relationship with stairs...those stories will all be fun--i promise. but for today...
MY STUDIO!!! oh my. any of you who know me irl or on rav know that i have been fighting my dyeing space for as long as i have been dyeing. i started my dyeing hobby in the summer. i love the summer, and i stay outside all day everyday when it is warm outside. sometimes i even set up "office space" out there with a desk and an ice bucket for diet coke and karbrun's. i put all the stuff i like to have in little baskets and go. why go inside when, in wisco, i am stuck inside for 6 months out of the year. outside there are little dancy warm molecules caressing my skin, bright pops of zinnias, sun warmed candy tomatoes, and a garden hose. anyway...
MY STUDIO!!! then, i started swapping my hand dyed yarn on rav. then i started custom dyeing for swaps. then i decided to go for it. what the hell. then it got serious. at this point, winter was kicking the door down. she's a bitch with her wet white crap. all you romantic types probably think snow is beautiful and magic and sparkly, but i know the truth. SNOW IS NOTHING MORE THAT MESSY WAITING TO HAPPEN.
so, i had to dye inside. first i started in what i call my dining room. don't know exactly why i call it that except than the folks from whom i bought the house had a dining room table in there. we certainly don't "dine" there. we dine in bed. if there are guests involved--more than will fit in the bed--we dine in the living room on the sofa with our plates in our laps. (why walls? but that's another story for another time.) but the dining room wasn't great. i spill stuff a lot. dye is messy messy business. and i like to have my guest visible space clean-ish in case some one drops by. which never happens unless it's phoebe, and she's cool with the mess. so i put the dye stuff in the closet like an unbalanced puzzle most nights and then had to drag it all back out to work again. i really needed space to work. i needed
MY STUDIO!! (gimmicky little trick i got going on here, right?) i tried to set my basement up as studio space, but it was hospital green and orange and yellow, and i really hated being imprisoned down there. i made it work by wearing those horse blinders. not really, but that's an idea for the rest of my house. i dyed down there for two eternal winters. it was gross. i really just didn't feel like cleaning up down there often, and i couldn't get organized without doing the aforementioned precarious puzzle thing. every summer, i would haul all my dye stuff--which at this point had grown into a considerable pile--outside again. i would set up shop in the garage. but still, this wasn't a fabulous plan. the hauling and the lack of organized space set me up for continual disasters. dyeing and disasters are inevitable--and sometimes there's that silver lining. in general though, dyeing and disasters just kill grass and leave me looking like i have been beaten repeatedly. so finally, this summer, lee and i got serious about setting up
MY STUDIO!!! (last time, i promise) and i'll tell you all about it in the next few days. stay tuned. it's like being inside a happy pink cloud.
MY STUDIO!!! oh my. any of you who know me irl or on rav know that i have been fighting my dyeing space for as long as i have been dyeing. i started my dyeing hobby in the summer. i love the summer, and i stay outside all day everyday when it is warm outside. sometimes i even set up "office space" out there with a desk and an ice bucket for diet coke and karbrun's. i put all the stuff i like to have in little baskets and go. why go inside when, in wisco, i am stuck inside for 6 months out of the year. outside there are little dancy warm molecules caressing my skin, bright pops of zinnias, sun warmed candy tomatoes, and a garden hose. anyway...
MY STUDIO!!! then, i started swapping my hand dyed yarn on rav. then i started custom dyeing for swaps. then i decided to go for it. what the hell. then it got serious. at this point, winter was kicking the door down. she's a bitch with her wet white crap. all you romantic types probably think snow is beautiful and magic and sparkly, but i know the truth. SNOW IS NOTHING MORE THAT MESSY WAITING TO HAPPEN.
so, i had to dye inside. first i started in what i call my dining room. don't know exactly why i call it that except than the folks from whom i bought the house had a dining room table in there. we certainly don't "dine" there. we dine in bed. if there are guests involved--more than will fit in the bed--we dine in the living room on the sofa with our plates in our laps. (why walls? but that's another story for another time.) but the dining room wasn't great. i spill stuff a lot. dye is messy messy business. and i like to have my guest visible space clean-ish in case some one drops by. which never happens unless it's phoebe, and she's cool with the mess. so i put the dye stuff in the closet like an unbalanced puzzle most nights and then had to drag it all back out to work again. i really needed space to work. i needed
MY STUDIO!! (gimmicky little trick i got going on here, right?) i tried to set my basement up as studio space, but it was hospital green and orange and yellow, and i really hated being imprisoned down there. i made it work by wearing those horse blinders. not really, but that's an idea for the rest of my house. i dyed down there for two eternal winters. it was gross. i really just didn't feel like cleaning up down there often, and i couldn't get organized without doing the aforementioned precarious puzzle thing. every summer, i would haul all my dye stuff--which at this point had grown into a considerable pile--outside again. i would set up shop in the garage. but still, this wasn't a fabulous plan. the hauling and the lack of organized space set me up for continual disasters. dyeing and disasters are inevitable--and sometimes there's that silver lining. in general though, dyeing and disasters just kill grass and leave me looking like i have been beaten repeatedly. so finally, this summer, lee and i got serious about setting up
MY STUDIO!!! (last time, i promise) and i'll tell you all about it in the next few days. stay tuned. it's like being inside a happy pink cloud.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)